Whatever the final outcome of Anthropic’s dispute with the Department of Defense, the attention it has generated — coupled with the company’s hilarious Super Bowl ads targeting OpenAI and the growing popularity of Claude Code — has made Anthropic more popular with consumers than ever.
An analysis of billions of anonymous credit card transactions from about 28 million US consumers, conducted for TechCrunch by Indagari, a consumer transaction analytics firm, shows Claude is gaining paid subscribers in record numbers.
Now, as with all big data analysis, there are caveats. Although this data is powerful, it does not cover every consumer. That means Indagari cannot calculate the user’s current or new Anthropic numbers. And it doesn’t include Claude’s business (which is its bread and butter) or its free tier users (those who don’t pay for Anthropic at all). Claude’s customer user ratings are all over the map (we’ve seen numbers from 18 to 30 million) but Anthropic hasn’t disclosed this data. A spokesperson told TechCrunch, however, that Claude’s paid subscriptions more than doubled this year.
What is worth noting is that consumers took out their wallets with Claude registration numbers between January and February. Interestingly enough, previous users returned to Claude in record numbers in February as well, Indagari told TechCrunch.
Indagari tells us that most of the new subscribers are at the lowest level, “Pro” users ($20 per month, compared to $100 or $200 per month).
Data through early March confirm that subscriber growth continues. (Data is available with a two-week delay.)
To recap why consumers might know more about Claude since January: Anthropic released several Super Bowl commercials mocking ChatGPT’s decision to show ads to its users — and promised Claude that he wouldn’t do the same. The spots were funny and effective (and got under the skin of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman).
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But the biggest hullabaloo started in late January when several media sites, including the Wall Street Journal and Axios, began reporting on the ongoing dispute between Anthropic and the DoD. At its core, the argument was about what the military could and couldn’t do with Anthropic’s AI.
Anthropic has refused to allow the DoD to use its AI models for autonomous lethal operations (AI that can kill people) or mass surveillance of American citizens. That beef grew public, when Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei issued a strong public statement on February 26 amid DoD threats to harm Anthropic’s business by calling the company a supply risk. What the DoD does. Lawsuits are now flying, although a federal judge this week temporarily blocked the department’s appointment.
New user growth increased significantly during this period. The increase is most pronounced between those press reports in late January and Amodei’s statement on February 26.
Beyond the drama, Claude Code and Claude Cowork – developer and production tools released in January – were subscription drivers. The Computer Use feature, released this week, also sparked the surge, Anthropic tells TechCrunch. That feature allows Claude to navigate the computer independently — clicking, scrolling, and performing actions on his own. It works with Dispatch, which allows users to assign tasks to their phones. These features are not available for free-tier users.
Still, for all of Anthropic’s growth among US consumers willing to pay for AI, Claude remains far behind ChatGPT.
Although OpenAI’s rollout quickly picked up after announcing the deal with the DoD — a move that stands in stark contrast to Anthropic’s security stance — Indagari’s data shows that OpenAI is still gaining new paid subscribers at a rapid rate and remains the largest consumer AI platform.
